(Concluded.)
As to the second branch of our inquiry, supposing we allow Rome the special place she arrogates, does scripture predict an apostacy of profession? Because, if it does, it cuts away from. Rome her claim to infallibility as well as to reform in the sense of renewing anything or setting it up again. Well, it is most certain that a terrible and universal apostacy is revealed in the word of God. And a singular phenomenon it is, that the very apostle (used, I might almost say, as the depositary of the love of God, and of the place which the church holds as His body and the bride of His affections) should be the very one who predicted its failure.
Let us come to proofs. Before doing so, it is well to glance at Rom. 11, in which chapter the apostle, from verse 11, gives a history of the Gentiles as acted upon by gospel grace, and which more than hints at their failure. They came into the place of Israel, who has been cut off nationally. They partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree; but there is a threat that, if they did not continue to stand by faith, they would be cut off as the Jews were. “For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” We are not then to be surprised at a defection. It is but a repetition of the history of Israel. That which is entrusted into man's hand fails, although God is always faithful to His promises. With this introduction we can pursue the course of the apostle's writings.
In Acts 20, in his address to the elders at Ephesus, he informs them that after his decease grievous wolves should “enter in, not sparing the flock;” also that of their “own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them;” that is, he speaks of men who were to arise from the body of elders, of ὲπισκόπους. There were to be evils of two kinds, those from without and those from within. It is of no avail to say that this was to be a partial betrayal of the interests of Christ at Ephesus, which need not spread farther! Two points are to be noted: first, “no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation” (2 Peter 1:2020Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. (2 Peter 1:20)); secondly, of all the seven churches mentioned in Revelation, after the death of Paul, Ephesus seems to have been the best. How then could the decay have been partial, when it had taken place in others before her? There is no idea of recovery by any extraneous help to be brought in from elsewhere, as by reference to other apostles or to a successional order. Nothing remained in Acts 20 but to commit them to God and to the word of His grace, that they might be built up and given an inheritance.
In 2 Thess. 2 he declares that there was a mystery of iniquity already at work which, instead of being eradicated, was to spread and culminate in a head—the man of sin or lawlessness, whom the Lord Himself is to consume with the spirit of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The weight of judgment is to fall upon those who believe not the truth: most certainly therefore they have been within hearing of it.
In 1 Tim. 4 he says, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith [ἀποστἡσονται, apostatize], giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils,” &c. It looks somewhat like popery.
In 2 Tim. 3 we have something beyond “latter times,” even “last days,” in which “perilous times shall come.” Already his co-laborers in Asia had turned away from him, as we know from 2 Tim. 1:1515This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. (2 Timothy 1:15). Some too, were “subverting” and others “overthrowing” the faith (chap. ii. 14-18); but eventually there was to be a return to the heathen vices of Rom. 1; 2; but with “a form of godliness,” an astounding picture of the defection of professing men.
A few words must suffice as to the witness which Peter bears. His second epistle runs much in the same line, and even same language, as Jude. My reader by consulting chapters ii., iii. will find these words: “There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them and many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of which the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.” &c. (Compare 3:4, 5.) He does not speak of any rectification, except by the coming of the day of the Lord. Meanwhile we are to account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. (Ver. 10, 12, 15.)
We now pass to Jude and the Epistles of John. Jude seems to have had the desire to write about “the common salvation,” but was deterred by the sense: of the incoming corruption, and, instead, proceeded to exhort them earnestly to “contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.” He goes on to show, from verse 6 onwards, the condition into which the Church was falling and would fall, to be met only by the Lord coming to judge it. But he points also to the path of the true-hearted ones: “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
In the first Epistle of John the defection is looked at from another standpoint. The fellowship of saints being with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, this fellowship is destroyed by the denial of the true incarnation and person of Christ. “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same not the Father.” Why so? Because it was the Father who sent the Son; but if we are in error upon the true Son as born into this world, as a consequence we must be ignorant of the Father who sent Him.
In the addresses to the seven churches in the Revelation we have abundance of evidence of declension without recovery. Ephesus begins, on losing her first love, with a warning lest her candlestick should be taken away, and Laodicea ends with the threat of being spewed out of Christ's mouth. It is true that at the worst there are a few, but only a few, found faithful—the overcomers; their communion with Christ endures, and to them the promises belong.
It is of moment to remember that scripture never supposes a recovery; at all events, it never contemplates a restoration to primitive order and power. There is always a resource for the faithful ones, as is abundantly shown by the promises to those that have ears to hear in the epistles to the churches. Christ never fails His own in the very darkest day, but He does not set up the thing that has failed in its ancient place, any more than He restored the Shekinah of His presence on the return of some of the Jews from Babylon under Nehemiah and Ezra. Those who see the ruin (whilst they own, as Daniel did, their share in it) labor according to the existing condition of things, and so much the less disappointment do they suffer. In the general, instead of recovery, our hope is the coming of the Lord.
Nothing now remains but to point out in very few words our condition, and the path of the saint in these days. One principal point is that we are living in the last times—in the condition of things of which 2 Tim. 2 Peter, Jude, the Epistles of John, and those to the seven churches give us, as it were, the program. Another paramount fact is to know that the question of the day is, What is the Church? A third is that Satan with all deceivableness of unrighteousness is pointing to Rome as the goal of every distressed soul. The defect of the reformers, eminent as they were, was in failing to discern the real condition of things and the mind of God in this condition. Instead of realizing the situation, and looking to God who in unfailing faithfulness never deserts His own, they began the work of building up again. By this they left a place for the insertion of the thin edge of the wedge; and hence the present confusion.
But still it may be argued that all this talk about ruin is negative. Let us come then to something positive. It is certainly true that the beginning of the declension was the loss of the truth of the Holy Ghost. We do not mean a deliberate or theoretical denial of His Godhead, although any one acquainted with the history of Arianism well knows that denial or uncertainty about Christ produced the same effects as to the Holy Ghost. There was a loss, from the moment church history opens in the writings of the Fathers, of the administration of the Holy Ghost on behalf of Christ or of God in His church. Church history begins with a well-defined hierarchy, and the Apostle Paul seems to have been forgotten as soon as he was dead. Are you then still looking for, or claiming to have produced a restoration? By no means; nay, the very contrary. But we are bound, in acknowledging the failure, to own the entire written word. We are bound to believe Eph. 4 as much as 2 Timothy, and to give both their place. It behooves us to know how to use 1 Timothy and Titus without allowing them to jar against 1 Cor. 12; 14
I would illustrate this. If I go to a good Protestant, who is individually sound in faith and practice, and put a leading question to him about the church, his reply will be, There are good people in every sect. Of course we should agree with him. If I put a second question, he will answer, For my own part, I prefer an Episcopal, or, as the case might be, a Presbyterian form of government; but I do not think scripture presents any of these matters with certainty. Now, certain or uncertain, it is just by being able to present his so-called church in a definite and tangible way that the popish priest has drawn away so many to Rome.
“OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.
“Canon 1. If any man say that the religion of Christ does not exist, and is not expressed in any particular association instituted by Christ himself, but that it may be properly observed and exercised by individuals separately without relation to any society which may be the true Church of Christ, let him be anathema.
“2. If any man say that the Church has not received from the Lord Jesus Christ any certain and immutable form of constitution, but that, like other human associations, it has been subject, and may be subject, according to the changes of times, to vicissitudes and variations, let him be anathema.
“3. If any man say that the Church of the Divine promises is not an external and visible society, but is entirely internal and invisible, let him be anathema.
“4. If any man say that the true Church is not a body one in itself, but that it is composed of various and dispersed societies bearing the Christian title, and that it is common to them all, or that various societies differing from each other in profession of faith and holding separate communion, constitute, as members and portions, a Church of Christ, one and universal, let him be anathema.
“5. If any man say that the Church of Christ is not a society absolutely necessary for eternal salvation, or that men may be saved by the adoption of any other religion whatsoever, let him be anathema.
“6. If any man say that this intolerance, whereby the Catholic Church proscribes and condemns all religious sects which are separate from her communion, is not prescribed by the Divine law, or that with respect to the truth of religion it is possible to have opinions only, but not certainty, and that, consequently all religious sects should be tolerated by the Church, let him be anathema.
“7. If any man say that the same Church of Christ may be obscured by darkness, or infected with evils, in consequence of which it may depart from the wholesome truth of the faith and manners, deviate from its original institution, or terminate only in becoming corrupt and depraved, let him be anathema.
“8. If any man say that the present Church of Christ is not the last and supreme institution for obtaining salvation, but that another is to be looked for from a new and fuller outpouring of the Holy Spirit, let him be anathema.
“9. If any man say that the infallibility of the Church is restricted solely to things which are contained in Divine revelation, and that it does not also extend to other truths which are necessary in order that the great gift of revelation may be preserved in its integrity, let him be anathema.
“10. If any man say that the Church is not a perfect society, but a corporation (collegium), or that as such in respect of civil society or the State it is subject to secular domination, let him be anathema.
“11. If any man say that the Church, divinely instituted, is like to a society of equals; that the Bishops have indeed an office and a ministry, but not a power of governing proper to themselves, which is bestowed upon them by Divine ordination, and which they ought to exercise freely, let him be anathema.
“12. If any man hold that Christ our Lord and Sovereign has only conferred upon his Church a directing power by means of its counsels and persuasions, but not of ordering by its laws, or of constraining and compelling by antecedent judgments and salutary penalties those who wander and those who are contumacious, let him be anathema.
“13. If any man say that the true Church of Christ, out of which no one can he saved, is any other than the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, let him be anathema.
“14. If any man say that the Apostle St. Peter has not been instituted by our Lord Christ as Prince of all the Apostles, and visible head of the Church Militant, or that he received only the pre-eminence of honor, had not the primacy of true and sole jurisdiction, let him be anathema.
“15. If any man say that it does not follow from the institution of our Lord Christ himself that Peter has perpetual successors in his primacy over the Universal Church, or that the Roman Pontiff is not by Divine right the successor of Peter in that same primacy, let him be anathema.
“16. If any man say that the Roman Pontiff has only a function of inspection and of direction, but not a full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the Universal Church, or that this power is not ordinary and immediate over the whole Church, taken as a whole or separately, let him be anathema.
“17. If any man say that the independent ecclesiastical power respecting which the Church teaches that it has been conferred upon it by Christ, and the supreme civil power cannot co-exist so that the rights of each may be observed, let him be anathema.
“18. If any man say that the power which is necessary for the government of civil society does not emanate from God, or that no obedience is due to it by virtue even of the law of God, or that such power is repugnant to the natural liberty of man, let him be anathema.
“19. If any man say that all rights existing among men are derived from the political State, or that there is no authority besides that which is communicated by such State, let him be anathema.
“20. If any man say that in the law of the political State or in the public opinion of men has been deposited the supreme rule of conscience for public and social actions, or that the judgments by which the Church pronounces upon what is lawful and what is unlawful, do not extend to such actions, or that by the forces of civil law an act which by virtue of Divine or ecclesiastical law is unlawful, can become lawful, let him be anathema.
“21. If any man say that the laws of the Church have no binding force until they have been confirmed by the sanction of the civil power, or that it belongs to the said civil power to judge and to decree in matters of religion by virtue of its supreme authority, let him be anathema.”
Thus the truth as to the church lies between, but apart from, the old successional bodies on the one hand, and the voluntary dissenting societies on the other. The former may in sound own the “one body,” but deny its character and ignore its nature, having no faith in the efficacy of redemption nor in the presence and sovereign action of the Holy Ghost in the Christian assembly. The latter have lost even the sound of the “one body” for practice on earth through the same fertile root of unbelief. Still the firm foundation of God stands with its twofold seal of divine purpose and creature responsibility.—Ed. B. T.]
Whosoever labors for Christ must do so as realizing the confusion and ruin of everything. If then attacked by an emissary from Rome, on the only ground they do attack, viz., the church, his ready reply would be, Scripture has predicted long ago the condition of which you are the living example. If he should ask, Where, then, is your church? at once one would fall back on Eph. 4:3: “There is one body and one Spirit.” If he asked, Where is your ministry? the reply would be, There is a permanent ministry for the use of that; body—in fact, belonging to it. “He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come,” &c.
If he said that Rome has all these, we should reply that, if not apostate, she has not them exclusively, but that if she arrogates to herself the title of the church, we have seen that the professing body is spewed out of Christ's mouth. (Rev. 3:1616So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:16).) Otherwise gifts are to be found in every part of Christendom, whether in or out of communion with Rome. But to all, whether in or out, one would say, are they in exercise according to 1 Cor. 12; 14? This is the fellowship from “the gifts” point of view made for us. We do not make it: it is made for us. We should assert, to this emissary of Rome and to all others, the indwelling and administration of the Holy Ghost in Christ's own house. (Eph. 2:2222In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22).)
Now, as sure as we really take this ground, it may be things are so weak that it comes only to “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18) To console us however there is the promise of His presence, which makes up for everything. Such a position does not suppose that we seek to build up or restore anything. It is only holding to the truth of God. But it is an answer to all the pretensions of Rome; and in truth, upon the question of the church, there is none other. It occupies God's ground, but in intelligence of the apostacy. We have as our end, too, the sweet hope of the coming of the Lord. If that was the promise to the overcomers in Thyatira and Philadelphia, it may well be ours. “Surely I come quickly. Even so, Come Lord Jesus.”